Reason for August 2018 Samui Power Cuts

[khunPer]

'Samui - Phangan' to save energy. Broken underwater cable

 

 

Daily News says that the new 115kV power cable from the mainland to Samui, entering at Maenam Bay, and supplying both Samui and Phangan, has be damaged, probably by the anchor from the last cruise ship visiting Nathon.

 

Expect 3 hour cuts to make it's way gradually around the island. Repairs will be underway until Sunday the 19th. August (2018).

 

Sixteen divers are currently working on rectifying the problem but chief of Region 2 PEA Panumas Limsuwan asked the public to help by using as little electricity as possible at this difficult time, until tha cable is repaired.

 

Full story in Thai at DailyNews.co.th. 

[Carlos Primeros]

Is there no news about the awful electric power situation we are still facing on Samui? In Plai Laem there is a power cut right now, since 6 pm.
And when we have power, there is an under voltage. We only get about 202 Volts on all 3 phases. So some times our automatic voltage detector shuts off the power to our water pump and then there is no water. It is a very annoying situation.


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[Carlos Primeros]

Now the power just came back. But with 200 Volts only.


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[futsukayoi]

 

I assume the reason that the power situation is being kept under wraps is because tourists might change their plans if they are aware that there are going to power cuts every day throughut their stay.

[RickG16]

Anyone know how bad this is on Phangan, and how many hours a day typically power is off for?

 

Cheers

[Tropicalevo]

Information from the PEA is scant. Here is a snip from a post that someone has sent to me.

 

Updates giving dates and times of outages are available from the PEA but the information is not 100% reliable. eg yesterday Plai Laem was to have an outage from 15.00 to 18.00. It did not happen but I would rather have a warning that did not materiaise than no warning at all.

 

Again, Plai Laem today out from 18.00 to 21.00- and tomorrow from 21.00 to 24.00

 

There is no known list of outages that lasts longer than 3 - 4 days. It is all 'on the fly' stuff.

 

 

[khunPer]

10 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Information from the PEA is scant. Here is a snip from a post that someone has sent to me.

 

Updates giving dates and times of outages are available from the PEA but the information is not 100% reliable. eg yesterday Plai Laem was to have an outage from 15.00 to 18.00. It did not happen but I would rather have a warning that did not materiaise than no warning at all.

 

Again, Plai Laem today out from 18.00 to 21.00- and tomorrow from 21.00 to 24.00

 

There is no known list of outages that lasts longer than 3 - 4 days. It is all 'on the fly' stuff.

 

 

I would think this copied post is from December 2012, when the major southern power supply cable had a fault. The power break lasted for 3-4 days, during which period almost all provinces helped with mobile diesel power generators, typically 300kW each, that gave various parts the island one hour power each 18 hour (or so, if I remember right).

 

The repair mentioned in my OP was stated to be finished August 19th.

[Tropicalevo]

I think that you are correct KhunPer.

 

I have not seen any generators on the island this time!

 

Apologies for the fake news.  ☹️

[RickG16]

Does anyone have an update from Koh Phangan? Are there still daily   power cuts?

 

Cheers

[Carlos Primeros]

I think that you are correct KhunPer.
 
I have not seen any generators on the island this time!
 
Apologies for the fake news.  [emoji852]️

How about These?

Found the picture on FB last week. It seems to be at the PEA substation in Bankao.

It looks as the generators were producing power for Samui...

But still now news what's going on..



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[islandguy]

The picture is from the transformer station near the snake farm, still the same yesterday

[Carlos Primeros]

The picture is from the transformer station near the snake farm, still the same yesterday

Are they running 24hours?

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[islandguy]

Thankfully, I don’t know lol

[islandguy]

[khunPer]

Samui and Phangan has the following power supply by underwater cables from the mainland...

In the OP the new line from mainland to Maenam (and further on to Phangan) was mentioned to have been damaged by an anchor from a cruise ship, and exped to be fixed within a few days.

 

I found a news article from 16th april 2015 stating that the new 115kV cable has a capacity of 100MW.

 

The generator in the photo was told have a capacity of 300kW (400kW peak) each, when similar ones were in use during the major powercut in 2012. The about 20+ shown in the photo in a post above could produce in the area of 5MW.

 

I found a news article from 26th August (2018) telling a story about extra need of power for the Full Moon Party...

Quote

Power supply boosted on Koh Samui, Koh Phangan

 August 26, 2018 Nanthida Kumari

THE Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) has moved emergency power generators to Koh Samui and Koh Phangan to ensure adequate supply during the Full Moon Party tonight (August 26, 2018) and throughout the festival, Thai News Agency reported.

Mr Phanumart Limsuwan, director PEA Zone 2 (South), said his agency has done its best to resolve problems after finding damaged cable lines on August 7.

An Emergency Response Center has been set up to tackle the power distribution problem on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan.

Full story in "Thai Residents" here...

–it's also mentioned that »54 emergency generators being moved in from across the country, and also some rented from the private sector to ensure smooth flow. Power supply on Koh Samui has gone up by 10 megawatts to boost the confidence of the people and tourists on the island.«

 

Seem like we missed this news article in the ThaiVisa news...?
When I told my lovely girlfriend, she just answered that she had known that for long time, known it from the Thai language local news...?

[lom]

7 hours ago, khunPer said:

Samui and Phangan has the following power supply by underwater cables from the mainland...

It should be mentioned that the 115KV cable laid in 2006 has never been operative, there was problem with it and PEA refused to pay for it until the contractor had rectified the problem which they never did

Quote

In the OP the new line from mainland to Maenam (and further on to Phangan) was mentioned to have been damaged by an anchor from a cruise ship, and expected to be fixed within a few days.

Yes apparently a cruise ship drifted away a bit with anchors down during stormy weather.

I've been told that the cruise ship company can expect a many hundred million baht bill.

Quote

 

The generator in the photo was told have a capacity of 300kW (400kW peak) each, when similar ones were in use during the major powercut in 2012. The about 20+ shown in the photo in a post above could produce in the area of 5MW.

 

 

Quote

The difference between today and 2012 was that the only 115KV cable broke down so we only had the old 33KV cable + the mobile generators feeding Samui + Phangan, hence the rotating power cuts. It was 8 hours cut every day, wasn't it
?

Today, with the damaged cable to Maenam we still have both of the old cables working so we have 115KV + 33KV + mobile generators.

Not as bad as 2012.

 

[Carlos Primeros]

 

Yes, but we still have under Voltage of about 200 Volts only. And we still have the frequent powet cuts

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[khunPer]

28 minutes ago, Carlos Primeros said:

Yes, but we still have under Voltage of about 200 Volts only

That's however about 200 Volts more than in 2012, makes a huge difference...?

[huberthammer]

Very helpful explanation about how Samui gets it's power. Thai infrastructure is always a bit of a mystery to me and asking people normally just results in a rant about a not perfect situation. Great to have knowledgeable residents who don't mind sharing their wisdom and help others to get a basic knowledge level  beyond just the "power comes out of the power socket".  Thanks you.

[farang62]

To pay the bill is almost impossible, the power is out or the internet is down. People have a business to run or manage and have no time to do either with no power or no internet.

 

During this time PEA needs to wave their daily interest charge and "Past Due Date" until they are able to supply a reliable product as they are required to do!

Many of my customers have made the trip to Natorn just to pay their electric bill and could not because of other services not being available. I big waste of time and money, mostly time.

 

Reminders of direct debit accounts also have caused trust in the banking system also.

 

get it fixed than threaten!